Kiwis will be able to shop around for better deals from banks with greater ease under a suite of measures announced by Commerce Minister David Clark today.Known as “open banking”, the changes mean banks will be required to seamlessly…

A protester has been arrested after appearing to hurl eggs and vitriol at King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, as they walked in the northern England city of York.

The incident happened on Wednesday as the King and his wife were entering York through Micklegate Bar, a medieval gateway where monarchs are traditionally welcomed to the city.

Video footage showed several eggs in motion and smashed on the ground. None appeared to hit the royal couple, who continued to greet crowds.

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Several police officers could be seen grappling with a man at a crowd barrier.

Britain's PA news agency reported that he booed and shouted "this country was built on the blood of slaves" as he was being detained.

Other members of the crowd tried to drown him out by chanting "shame on you" and "God save the King".

READ MORE: Joe Biden defies history as Democrats dramatically outperform expectations in 2022 midterm elections 

Charles and Camilla travelled to York as part of a series of engagements around the UK marking the start of the new king's reign.

They also visited the city's cathedral, York Minster, and unveiled a statue of the King's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne.

When Nick Sydney was married he paid for his wife’s daughter to go to a private school, took her on overseas holidays and lavished presents on her – even a Louis Vuitton handbag. Her grandmother was amazed at his generosity towards…

The US midterm elections are almost always a slap in the face of the president in power.

But in the face of a struggling economy, dire approval ratings and the slimmest of legislative majorities, Joe Biden has defied history with today's election results.

With a handful of Senate races and dozens of House of Representative races yet to be called, it appears possible that Biden's Democratic Party may have gained ground today.

LIVE UPDATES: The latest results on the US midterm election

Republicans needed to pick up a single seat to take control of the Senate. But at the count at the time of publishing, they are likelier to lose one.

And they needed to pick up five seats in the House of Representatives. 

At the moment they have picked up seven seats, and lost two. There are 73 yet to be called.

Whether they take control of the House or not, Republicans will be asking themselves what happened.

Once again, Donald Trump happened.

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Though he's been out of office for two years now, Trump remains an overwhelming presence within the Republican Party.

And he has used that power to endorse candidates across the country, whether they are qualified or not.

And many of those candidates have alienated, irritated or frightened voters, sending them running to Democrats.

In Pennsylvania, television doctor Mehmet Oz was rejected by voters in favour of the shorts-wearing populist Democrat John Fetterman.

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In Georgia, scandal-plagued football star Herschel Walker is currently trailing Democratic senator and pastor Raphael Warnock.

And in Arizona, Trump-endorsed Blake Masters is trailing senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly.

Midterms are usually a referendum on the sitting president. Voters don't like Joe Biden, but they dislike Donald Trump even more.

In more bad news for Trump, just about the only Republican to outperform expectations was Florida governor and presidential aspirant Ron DeSantis.

One of the key issues driving voters to the polls is one out of Congress's hands.

The Supreme Court's overturning of abortion rights outraged millions, and led to an army of young women casting a ballot.

READ MORE: Nevada results could take days

While Republicans talked about inflation and crime, Democrats focused on abortion rights. And it appears to have worked.

Today's result is an upset only for those who ignored the polls.

Polling showed close races across the country, but pundits burned by 2016 and 2020 misses took them with more grains of salt than they should have.

If Democrats do maintain the Senate, it allows Biden to continue one of a president's greatest powers – appointing judges.

A Republican-controlled Senate would likely bring his appointments to a grinding halt.

The purported Medibank hacker has released a sample of the user data obtained in the cyber attack on the healthcare giant.

At 2am today (AEDT), they posted some details including phone numbers and Medicare numbers to a dark web forum, a day after threatening the data would be released in 24 hours.

The purported hacker updated their earlier dark web post, which had a Confucius quote and a meme featuring Super Mario characters. 

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"Looking back that data is stored in not very understandable format (tables dumps) we'll take some time to sort it out and we posting a small part of the data, in 'human readable format (sample in json file )' also we post all raw data," the hacker wrote.

"We'll continue posting data partially, need some time to do it pretty."

Included in the post is a dark-web link to some files, which 9News has sighted and which appear to include valid details of Australians and their healthcare interactions.

9News will not publish this information.

It includes full names, phone numbers, addresses, Medicare number, dates of birth, genders and the names of healthcare providers and the codes used by Medibank to list diagnosis and treatment.

It's not known yet how much data the hackers are willing to release or if they are making additional ransom demands of Medibank in the meantime. 

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It also appears that WhatsApp messages between the hackers and Medibank representatives, including the company's CEO David Koczkar, have been published – effectively releasing Koczkar's private phone number.

Medibank has stated publicly it will not pay the ransom being asked by the cyber criminal.

"We believe there is only a limited chance paying a ransom would ensure the return of our customers' data and prevent it from being published," Medibank CEO David Koczkar said.

It urged customers to be vigilant and apologised unreservedly.

The health insurer confirmed 9.7 million Australians had had their basic personal information accessed by the hackers, including 5.1 million Medibank customers, 2.8 million AHM clients and 1.8 million international customers.

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Yesterday, Medibank's share price fell to their lowest levels in two years.

Two law firms have also announced they will proceed with a class action against the insurer, arguing it failed to protect customers' data.

It was previously confirmed that names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses had been part of the data breach.

The dark web forum in question was used in 2021 by a ransomware group linked to Russia and abandoned after many in the group were arrested by Russian authorities, but has been back online posting data from hacks in recent months.

After meeting Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka on Tinder, a Sydney woman says her date with him turned into a nightmare where she feared for her life.

The woman, who cannot be identified, was allegedly sexually assaulted four times in her Rose Bay home on November 2 after going out for drinks and pizza with the international sports star.

Gunathilaka, 31, was arrested in the early hours of Sunday at Sydney's Hyatt Regency Hotel where he was staying while the Sri Lankan cricket team were in Australia for the T20 World Cup.

READ MORE: Bail rejected after Sri Lankan cricketer charged with sexual assault

He is facing four counts of sexual intercourse without consent and has not yet given a plea.

According to a NSW police facts sheet filed with Downing Centre Local Court, the couple matched on Tinder and later had a number of video calls through WhatsApp before meeting in person on November 2.

The woman alleges Gunathilaka forcefully kissed her and slapped her buttocks on the ferry home.

After they arrived at her home, the cricketer allegedly refused to wear a condom and choked the woman three times.

"The complainant tried to remove the accused's hand by grabbing his wrist but the accused squeezed tighter around her neck," the police facts sheet says.

"The complainant was fearing for her life and could not get away from the accused."

She also gagged and couldn't breathe during an attempt at oral sex, the court documents claim.

"She continually tried to pull away from the accused, a clear indication that she was not consenting."

In a police interview after his arrest, Gunathilaka corroborated some of the alleged victim's story but denied that he had been violent or that consent had not been given.

Prosecutors allege the victim did not consent to sex without a condom or any of the other sexual acts performed.

With Gunathilaka not having any ties in Australia, still living with his parents, and receiving $18,500 a month for playing with the Sri Lankan cricket side, police investigators believe there is a risk of him fleeing the country if released.

On Monday, a bail application by the sports star while in custody at Surry Hills Police Station was rejected by magistrate Robert Williams.

Gunathilaka travelled to Australia with Sri Lanka's T20 World Cup team but only played in their first game, a loss against Namibia, before being ruled out of the competition with a hamstring tear.

Sri Lanka bowed out of the T20 tournament on Saturday night after losing their final match to England.

Gunathilaka was due to board a flight back to Sri Lanka on November 6.

On Monday, Sri Lanka Cricket announced it would conduct its own inquiry, saying Gunathilaka would be penalised if the court finds him guilty in Australia.

The matter will return to court on January 12.

A baby boy has died in a Sydney hospital after a house fire this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to the home on Darwin Road in Campbelltown about 2.15pm and treated the six-week-old boy for burns to up to 90 per cent of his body.

He was taken to Campbelltown Hospital in a critical condition but later died.

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A second child was assessed for smoke inhalation but did not require further treatment.

NSW Ambulance Chief Superintendent Mark Gibbs said it was a confronting scene for paramedics.

"The baby had sustained burns to between 80 and 90 per cent of its body," Gibbs said.

"Paramedics provided treatment for the burns, alongside a specialist medical team from the Toll Ambulance Rescue helicopter before the baby was taken to hospital by road.

"Any incident involving a child, particularly a very young baby, is heartbreaking, but I'd like to commend our crews for doing an exemplary job under very difficult circumstances."

Victorians are being warned of a potentially deadly thunderstorm asthma event.

The Department of Health issued a thunderstorm asthma alert for the Wimmera region, in the state's west, tomorrow, when storms are forecast to hit the area.

"The combination of forecast extreme grass pollen levels and a certain type of thunderstorm with strong winds means there is a chance a large number of people may develop asthma symptoms over a short period of time," the Department said.

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The Mallee, South West, Central and North Central regions have a moderate risk forecast tomorrow, while the Northern Country, North East, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland regions have a low-risk forecast.

People with asthma or hay fever should carry medication and stay inside before and during the storms.

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Melbourne had the world's largest epidemic thunderstorm asthma event on November 21, 2016, when thousands of people developed breathing difficulties and ten people died.

In September of this year, officials warned locals to prepare for the upcoming storm season.

Anyone who suffers from asthma or hay fever can monitor the forecast on the VicEmergency app.

A cold case from four decades ago is being reopened by Queensland Police after new DNA technology helped to identify a possible killer.

Owen Edward (Eddie) Crabbe was killed in a Gold Coast hotel room in 1982, shortly after he split up with his wife and came out as gay.

The 57-year-old's body was found with his throat cut and jeans around his neck in an apartment at the Beachcomber Hotel in Surfers Paradise.

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Queensland Police are using new DNA technology, which has produced an accurate description and image of a possible suspect.

Police believe the DNA sample sketch has identified a man named Michael, who was a friend of Crabbe's, and hasn't been seen since the murder.

Criminologist Xanthe Mallette said they were using DNA from blood found at the crime scene 40 years ago, to produce an accurate description and image.

"In this case, his skin colour is very fair to fair and we can put a likeliness around that of 76 per cent," Mallette said.

The image below is a sketch of what the genes from the blood sample show the potential killer could look like.

LIVE UPDATES: The latest on the US midterm elections

Queensland Police have failed to locate the suspect, who they believe was staying with Crabbe at the time.

Police believe the killer was a martial arts expert, as Crabbe's injuries were mostly from kicks, not punches.

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His son Tracey Crabbe, who was 13 at the time, hasn't given up hope on finding his father's killer.

He said it would be good to get closure as it was a horrible event that happened.

"I reckon just by fate he's met someone who obviously got issues, something hasn't gone right," Tracey Crabbe said.

Police are now offering $500,000 as a reward and anyone with information is urged to contact authorities.

Video has shown the dramatic moment a man was rescued from his flooded four-wheel-drive in the New South Wales Riverina region.

In the footage provided by Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW), a crew can be seen reaching the stranded vehicle on the Sturt Highway in Narrandera, before one of the firefighters opens the driver's door and hands the man a life jacket.

The incident happened at around 7pm on Tuesday.

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FRNSW said the man had been towing farming equipment before getting stuck, and that the floodwaters were preventing him from escaping the four-wheel-drive.

"The vehicle was towing farming machinery when it became stuck on the Sturt Highway at Narrandera last night," it said in a statement.

"Water had reached above the tyres and was preventing the driver from opening the doors.

"FRNSW Strike Team Foxtrot managed to drive within a kilometre of the vehicle, before switching to a boat to safely complete the rescue.

"Firefighters freed the driver, placing a lifejacket on him before taking him by boat to a safe location."

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While floods have been impacting residents across NSW for the past few weeks, FRNSW warned the emergency will continue for months more.

"Based on the latest weather forecasts, it's expected the current flood event could last until February next year," it said.